Women’s Leadership in Southeast Asia: Examining the Authentic Leadership Implementation Potency

Rapid economic growth in Asia has helped reduce gender inequality in several countries, especially those in Southeast Asia. This has led, among many other things, to the fact that women have higher opportunities to become leaders. Yet, in Southeast Asia the biggest challenge that remains is the tendency of “untrained” women in public leadership. Then the birth of women needs to get strategic support from the current system of leadership culture, that good life for women is the main pillar of women’s leadership requirements. This paper discusses the opportunities present for preparing Southeast Asian women to become future leaders from a number of authentic leader characteristics that they have. By using the content analysis method, the preliminary findings of this study is the existence of better gender relations, accompanied by the resilience and pragmatism of today’s location communities, bringing Southeast Asian women to a promising future leadership role. A number of characteristics of authentic leaders that have become the basis of women’s identity are actually the main capital to be prepared further through a number of educational efforts, assistance and training in order to increase knowledge, insight, organizational skills and selfconfidence. Next, women leaders must be made. Women’s willingness and ability to adapt and develop stronger skills in the areas of emotional intelligence, empowerment, and power of influence place them in a strong position to use these advantages to propel them forward in leadership roles. Southeast Asian countries, especially those with a low human development index, have to begin to open up the need for a state led by women leaders who have the potential to represent a number of authentic leadership criteria to respond to the crisis of public confidence in the country’s leadership.


Introduction
Over the past two decades, rapid economic growth throughout Asia has helped reduce gender disparities in many countries. However, there is still plenty of room for improvement, especially in government. Asia, more than any other region, has the highest number of female heads of state. But most are due to family or dynastic relations, not due to gender equality. Linda K. Richter in 1990Richter in -1991 (Richter, 1991). Some Asian countries with the highest human development index also tend to have the lowest gender equality and low levels of female labor participation. That means investment in human development for women has not been efficiently utilized. Moreover, there are several conditions that make Asian women tend to stay only in a domestic role. First, culture influences the way a woman can maintain her ambition and motivation. In many cases, women do all the work but they will be the representative of the head who usually is a man. With low or stigmatized cultural values playing a nontraditional leadership role, women often become neglected or left behind. Second the importance of policy in the organization. Do they support women? Is there empowerment, mentoring, and support for women whose leadership paths tend to be different from that of men? The third factor is women's own motivation. Do they work in fields that make them feel alive and excited (K.

Lane, 2015)?
There is a lot of correlation between more gender diversity teams and better problemsolving, governance, and profitability. Women, for example, are better present when they are in their perseverance helping change dynamics for the better (K. Lane, 2015). Asia is a very diverse place, but what can some Asian countries learn about the diversity of more developed countries, and vice versa? Singapore, Korea and Japan are more developed, and have very high human development indexes, but they do not always succeed in women's leadership. This is different, however, in some developing countries. Lane's (2015) research found that in the Philippines, women are culturally strong so that their voices are heard and they are active leaders in almost all fields. But of course, there are other emerging markets with low human development and high gender inequality. There is a culture that greatly underestimates girls and women, and India is an example, with very high levels of violence against women and the continued traditional gendered expectations. Women must convey their vision going forward, and it must be different for each government, so that they see their women as the single largest untapped asset (K. Lane, 2015).
As Lojzer (2015) argues, by nature, leaders need to be decision makers at all levels and have the confidence to push forward on issues that are sometimes difficult in order to achieve the greater good of the larger organization. Leaders are not only born, leaders are made, but crafting leadership requires the right building blocks: the development of good emotions, mentoring, learning, opportunities, support and adaptability.
There are many elements that influence the development of leaders including the willingness to be trained, relational influences, environment influences, and socioeconomic and emotional development. The vast difference between the female brain and the male brain both in the structure and neurochemistry provides opportunities for women to further develop Women's Leadership in Southeast Asia: Examining the authentic leadership implementation potency 118 their strengths in leadership, because they tend to do well in the areas that are currently seen as the most important leadership skills of our time (Lojzer, 2015). However, their willingness and ability to adapt and develop stronger skills in the area of emotional intelligence, empowerment and the power of influence place them in a strong position to use these advantages to push them forward in leadership (Lojzer, 2015).
The research question of this paper is: "Do

Methods
This qualitative descriptive study explains the problem through the data analysis and the secondary data collection, as well as reporting the results. Data collection for this study was carried out using literature and document studies as a source of research data. So that the type of data used is secondary data. The validity and reliability of the data has been tested with a content analysis (Krippendorff, 2004) that explains and analyzes data from research results that have been read and summarized from various written data sources (document analysis). Data interpretation is then analyzed through deductive methods, which attempt to apply theories that are relevant to the phenomenon, formulate conclusions from the data (Silverman, 2005), and then present the results.

Results and Discussion
Southeast Asia is a regional region with the largest population in the world. Eleven countries in Southeast Asia have a population of more than 660 million people, equivalent to 8.59% of the world's total population. Despite major linguistic and cultural differences, this region is steps that needs to be done for women's strategic needs is through empowerment and changing gender structures, which are called Gender and Development or "GAD" (Mosse, 2007). Women's access to education is even better.

Women in Southeast Asia during Colonialism and its Current Progress
Many women complete junior high school, more likely to seek vocational skills and academic qualifications, including to tertiary institutions (Lim, 2014). With the exception of Cambodia and Laos, the number of women processed for postsecondary training has also increased. In Brunei, Malaysia, Thailand and the Philippines there are more female graduates than men, while in Vietnam and Indonesia the ratio is more balanced (Andaya, 2019). However, although more and more women have graduated from various levels of education who have successfully entered the workforce available, the number of women in toplevel positions in companies does not necessarily increase (Lim, 2014).

But the expansion in education has
contributed to the blossoming of female-oriented non-governmental organizations (NGOs) since the 1980s, which have given the knowledge and organization skills that equip them to argue for issues. The number of women holding public office has also increased, especially at the regional government level. In recent years, the Philippines is the Southeast Asian country that has the highest representation of women in national government with an increase of more than 10% (Andaya, 2019).  (Majalah CSR.id, 2018).
Singapore, in the Global Gender Gap Index 2018 is at 67 th , which was one of the countries with the smallest gender gaps in the fast growing artificial intelligence talent pool. In research conducted by the WEF and LinkedIn, female representation in Singapore's AI talent pool was 28%, higher than the global representation of 23% (Okutsu, 2018).  (Tirto.id, 2018). In the Global Gender Gap Index 2018 Vietnam fell eight spot to 77th from 69th at 2017 (Okutsu, 2018).
In Thailand, which ranked fifth in gender quality according to the WEF report, it is known that women were given equal rights for the first time in the 1997 constitution. However, stereotypes and prejudice against women are still widespread. Even with female school enrollment ratios higher than men by around 10%, the work and wages earned by women still suffer from discrimination (McKinsey Global Institute, 2012). However, in the Global Gender Gap Index Report 2018 Thailand climbed the ranking to 73rd, narrowing the gender gap for educational attainment (Okutsu, 2018).
In Indonesia, women make up more than half of the country's workforce, with many taking to remain in the 50% range, while the female population over the age of 15 years is greater than the male population of the same age (Azmi, Ismail, & Basir, 2012). This shows that Indonesian women did not experience growth in the labor market.
The gender wage gap in Indonesia is also still high (World Economic Forum, 2017). It is noted that the estimated income earned by men is $15,536, while for women it is only $7,632 (Azmi, Ismail, & Basir, 2012). This is also the case in political empowerment. Women's representation in political exchanges from the 1999 general election to 2014 is still minimal, even though the potential is large because the achievements of Indonesian women in education actually exceeds men: 51% for women and 49% for men (Azmi, Ismail, & Basir, 2012). That's way in the Global Gender Gap Index Report 2018 Indonesia fell one spot, to 85 th from 84 th in 2017 (Okutsu, 2018).
In Myanmar, as in Vietnam, gender differences in enrollment in secondary and tertiary education have been abolished. In addition to increasing the role of women in the technical and professional fields by closing the gap completely, Myanmar began to approach the achievement of gender equality in the total participation of its workplace (Majalah CSR. id, 2018). This shows the achievement of good gender equality in the education sector as well as the achievement of participation and economic opportunities for women in Myanmar, although in achieving political empowerment, women are still under-represented at the legislative level and senior officials. In the health and survival sector gender equality also has not been well achieved.
Like Indonesia, in the Global Gender Gap Index Report 2018 Myanmar also fell to 88 th from 83 rd (Okutsu, 2018).
In Cambodia, the country's government has reduced overall gender disparity (World Economic Forum, 2017). Cambodian women are said to be in increased empowerment in the political and economic fields, also in greater opportunities to access tertiary education (Majalah CSR.id, 2018).
In the Global Gender Gap Index Report 2018, Cambodia moved up six spots to 93 rd from 99 th (Okutsu, 2018).
In Malaysia, gender equality is reported to be lowest compared to other Southeast Asian countries. In the education sector achievement, Women in Southeast Asia tend to choose to stay close to home because of the responsibility of their domestic roles. Women tend to reject jobs that keep them away from home (Gerintya, 2018). This

Concepts to the Success of Women in Southeast Asia
Environmental changes indicate that within a country or region, a social system network requires an interpersonal approach from an authentic leader to formal and informal small groups in an open system. Authentic leadership will transmit a value system to followers in order to improve quality (Avolio & Gardner, 2005).
Authentic leaders will influence their followers on the organization they lead as a dynamic, complex and sometimes unpredictable social system. What is needed today is an authentic leader, the type of leader who has high integrity and, is committed to developing the organization where she is affiliated. We need leaders who have a strong determination to realize the organization is useful, not only for all people specifically, but also for the wider community (George, 2003).

Although women's leadership in Southeast
Asia still faces obstacles from traditional Asian values that remain to limit women's progress in promoting themselves in the work environment, even for modern Asian women, the opportunity to prepare women as authentic leaders as one of the women's movements is one of the more pressing needs.
Decisions about one's work are still understood as individual choices rather than as a consequence of the existing political power structure (Weeks, 2011). Whereas one's choices for work are determined by various political economic conditions, such as a flexible labor market, access to education, and the loss of living space in the village due to land acquisition for infrastructure development (Akram-Lodhi, Kay, & Borras, 2012), (Standing, 1999). For women, the choice of work is largely undemocratically determined by the women themselves because women are still deemed responsible for social reproduction work in the household and family. "Women's work" is then defined as a natural thing for women (Fraser, 2017). Hence, women in Southeast Asia tend to choose to remain close to home because of the responsibility for their domestic role. Women will tend to reject jobs that keep them away from the home (Gerintya, 2018). This confirms that Southeast Asian women generally maintain domestic commitments before engaging in public activities, unlike men who are constructed socially and culturally as responsible for production work in the public domain (Fraser, 2017).
The formation of women's work that places women in social reproductive areas in the household or family rather than as production work, results in women tending to be seen as having no leadership skill, being unable to lead, unable make a decision for the organization and not be able to have public responsibilities.
So with the variety of economic, political, and cultural diversity, as well as the development of state democracy, the opportunities for developing Southeast Asian women's involvement depend on gender responsive governance. Southeast Asian women who have authentic leadership characteristics become the basic capital to become leaders in the future. The capacity of women in Southeast Asia and a democratic system needs to be constantly developed in order to continue encouraging women's empowerment in various fields, which is done by increasing literacy and providing training in the skills and abilities of women's organizations (Tambiah, 2003). Even the experience of women in various parts of the world, especially in developing nations, shows that women can be empowered in fields other than just economics (McEwan, 2001). And don't forget, gender-sensitive legislation is also a priority that can succeed in the formation of future women leaders.

Conclusion
The achievement of gender equality in every country in Southeast Asia is now prominent and stands out in the achievement of the education sector.
However, achievement in economic participation and opportunities as well as achievements in political empowerment are still quite low. Women still tend to limit themselves and are reluctant to promote themselves in the work environment, including being a leader. Women in Southeast Asia see a domestic role as more important than a public role due to a strong commitment to family responsibilities. Women's behavior shows that they tend to be very concerned about the welfare of the group or family even at the expense of individuals. This is deeply traditional Asian value that still underlies the modern behavior of Southeast Asian women today.
Women's Leadership in Southeast Asia: Examining the authentic leadership implementation potency 126 In Southeast Asia, opportunities for developing women's involvement still depend on democracy and gender responsive governance.
The existence of better gender relations, accompanied by the resilience and pragmatism of today's location communities, brings Southeast Asian women to a promising future. A number of characteristics of authentic leaders that have become the basis of women's identities are actually the main capital to be prepared further through a number of educational efforts, assistance and training in order to increase knowledge, insight, organizational skills, and self-confidence. Therefore, women will be able to become authentic leaders who can take part in various aspects that are not only limited to men. Gender equality will be increasingly realized if the state supports it through various gender responsive legislation and its implementation on sustainability.